COURSE RESOURCE

Choosing Your Course Type

HeloiseLaight.com

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Choosing Your Course Type

Which of these 3 proven approaches is right for you?

Okay, so you are now at the stage where you’ve chosen a subject area for your course and thought about your potential audience. Next comes a big decision: what type of course are you going to create? By ‘type’ I don’t mean ‘format’ (like a slide deck presentation, live event or a webinar). I mean the overall approach of the course – how the customer will engage with it, and what kind of result it aims to deliver for them. What type of course you pick will depend on the subject you are trying to tackle, the needs of the ideal customer you are trying to reach, as well as your level of expertise and time commitment. To help you, I have boiled it down to the three main course types that I think you should consider at this stage. TYPE ONE: Quick Start Course These are often a good place for new creators to start because these courses can be short and sweet, easier to create and cheaper in price. What that price might be will depend on several factors which I explain in the pricing training – including the cost benefit to the customer, what your competitors are doing and the level of credibility you have behind your system or method.

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A quick start course is a good way to introduce yourself if you're new in a market. Sometimes they're used as freebie courses to introduce people to you, so that you can start building a database of customers. To give you one of my own examples… We published a Crypto Currency kickstart programme by an expert in the field. He was highly knowledgeable and could have created an in-depth course, with support and coaching, but… For many people, investing in cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin for example) is a scary idea. We knew that plenty of people were interested but a majority wanted something basic to help them understand how it worked, so they could dip their toe in the water. So, we opted for a ‘quick start’ course and created the ‘Crypto Kickstart Programme’. This gave basic instructions on how people could buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies – essential steps which a lot of people didn't know how to do. To make it practical, we gave them short video tutorials showing them how to carry those steps out. We also gave them what was called a ‘long-hold’ tip. In other words, a single cryptocurrency recommendation that they could buy. However, there was no support. No ongoing analysis. And no Facebook group. At this stage, customers did not need that kind of interaction, as the course was merely about getting them up and running with their first investment. You could do the same with your subject area.

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Instead of covering a lot of ground, you could focus on a series of key essentials that a beginner would need. Bear in mind that just because it’s a ‘quick start’ course, it still takes work putting it together. You’ll have to spend time planning its contents, working out what to include and – just as importantly – what not to include. Also understand that the low price doesn't always make a difference to your customers’ expectations. I have published £37 products where people are as demanding of support as you’d get with a £5,000 product. Obviously, it's frustrating when someone has paid you a small amount and then expects a substantial amount of your time. So, I recommend that you set clear boundaries on what you're prepared to deliver and make that clear up front when you sell your quick start course. A quick start course can typically be priced anywhere from free (if you are using it to generate new leads) - £99. Ideally, you would create this course with a long-term view of upselling these people to a more involved course, like the type below… TYPE TWO – Focus Course In a focus course, you take one main topic from your area of expertise and (as the name suggests!) focus on that. Let’s say your special interest area is social media marketing. That subject covers a range of platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and others. It also includes different topics, including free content marketing, paid advertising, getting followers, driving traffic to websites, launching products and using the latest tech tools.

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A focus course would focus on just one of these. For instance, you might concentrate entirely on Instagram stories. Or you might concentrate on how to create Facebook ad campaigns. This is a great way to seek out your ideal target customer, because it attracts an audience that's interested in your subject area, yet you don’t have to charge them for an in-depth course that takes more commitment in terms of time, focus and money. If they find your course useful, then you have scope to upsell them to a more in-depth course covering other topics. One advantage of a focus course is that you could do lots of them, covering each of the main topics in your subject area. Going back to my social media example, you could do focus courses on each of the main social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Or let’s take the example of home organisation. There’s a woman named Shira Gill in the USA, who is an expert in this field. She could have created a huge programme about how to better organise your home – your cupboards and drawers, your workspace, your kitchen and your wardrobes. However, she started by creating a spotlight course called ‘a closet makeover programme’ - or ‘wardrobe’ as we would call it in the UK. This gives her a smaller scope for her course, making it much more manageable. She has followed that up with ‘a workspace makeover programme’ and then the ‘kitchen makeover programme’. So instead of trying to cover everything in one course, she is focussing on individual topics in a series of spotlight courses.

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A focus course can typically cost anything from £97 to £297. It depends on how in-depth you go into that one topic, as well as factors including the amount your competitors are charging, as well as the cost-benefit to the customer. For instance, if your focus course includes a recommendation that might make, or save, them money, then the price can be higher. TYPE THREE – Signature Course The signature course covers a whole subject, with multiple topics, from start to finish. I’ll take my own ‘Course Creation Academy’ as an example, as you are actually following this course yourself! With this signature course my aim is to take someone through every step they need in order to create and profit from their own course. There are a lot of topics involved, including choosing a subject area, doing research, creating content, coming up with a title, recording videos, writing sales copy, among others. I could have chosen one as a focus course, but my signature course covers them all. To give you another example… If you recall, I talked about how we created a quick start course about cryptocurrency investing. Well, to follow that up, we also created a signature course we could promote to those who bought the quick start version. The Crypto Traders' Academy went into far more depth, using video tutorials to give specific tips on cryptocurrencies that people could invest in. There was support with it, and a Facebook group, which meant that customers got a lot more out of it.

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Naturally, a signature course takes the most work, as you’re covering more ground, in more depth, and there’s usually more support too. However, this type of course is the most profitable, as you can typically charge a much higher price for it – anything from £297 to £1,997. Again, the price depends on how much of a financial benefit the customer will get, or how urgent a problem you’ll fix if it’s related to physical or emotional wellbeing. Also consider what the competition charge and how much you offer in terms of interaction and coaching. To make a success of a signature course, you really need to enjoy it so that you’ll stick with it, and so you enjoy doing the after sales support. You have to get a buzz out of sharing what you know with others. So, when you consider a signature course, think of what most appeals to you, and gets you excited. Remember, you don’t have to do this kind of course right away if it makes you nervous. You can start with quick start and focus course types in the beginning, then expand on that material later for a signature course. Allrightsreserved.NopartofthispublicationmaybereproducedinanyformorbyanymeanswithoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofCanonburyPublishingLtd.Pleasenoteitisourintentiontobeasaccurateinfact,detailandcommentaspossible.However,thepublishersandtheirrepresentativescannotbeheldresponsibleforanyerrorindetail,accuracyorjudgementwhatsoever.Thispublicationisdistributedonthisunderstanding.ThisguideispublishedbyCanonburyPublishingLtd.Registeredoffice:CurzonHouse,24HighStreet,Banstead,Surrey,SM72LJRegisteredinEnglandNo.4765425VATReg.Number811570064©CanonburyPublishingLtd